“LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING”
A Journey Into What Matters Most
October 26, 2008
Cornerstone Community Church
Over the next five weekends, we are going to consider this question: “What would it mean to live like we were dying?” A few Sunday mornings ago we prayed for a man named Ron. Ron came to our church for a short time about ten years ago, then sort of drifted away from church and from God. One Monday afternoon last spring Ron walked into the church with a grim look on his face. After we exchanged a brief greeting, Ron got right to the point – he had just come from the doctor’s office. The tests had come back, and Ron had stage four lung cancer. At most the doctors gave Ron 18 months to live, but most likely he had far less time than that. Ron and I spent some time that afternoon talking and praying and crying. Over the next two months we had lunch together a number of times and many conversations about how to go about preparing for the end of his life. And though I tried to push the thoughts out of my mind, each time I hung up from a call with Ron I eventually found myself wondering, “What if that was me? What if I had been told I had six months to live? What would I need to do to prepare for the end? Who would I want to talk to, what would I want to do, where would I want to go, who would I want to become?”
Now let me assure you of something as we begin this five-week series. This is not going to be a morbid series. Do you remember taking driver’s ed? One of the key components of a driver’s ed class when I was growing up was the video clips of people who died in car crashes. The ones I watched were pretty gruesome. The point of those clips was to teach us a proper respect for the motor vehicles we were learning to drive, but frankly none of us in the class wanted to even get in a car after those videos. The effect was something like the labor and delivery videos they showed us in Lamaze class. After watching those, everyone in our class wanted to say, “We’ve changed our minds; we’re not going to have this baby.” Just so you know, we’re not going to do anything like that in this series. The point is not to be morbid or depressing or heavy-handed. After all, we as followers of Jesus have been assured by our Lord that death is not the end. As the old hymn says, because Jesus lives, we can know that we will live too. That’s something that Ron and I talked about a lot.
On the other hand, it does none of us any good to pretend that we’re never going to die. That would be silly, and it is not a bit helpful. The truth is that we are all “terminal,” and no amount of vitamins and exercise is going to prevent us from dying. Ecclesiastes 8:7-8 says, “Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death.”
So the question is not “if,” but “when.” The Bible says the Lord has numbered our days, but he hasn’t revealed his calculations. I don’t know the number of my days and you don’t know the number of your days. The Psalmist says it this way: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath.” (Psalm 39:4-5) In Job we read this: “Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” (Job 14:5)
Here is something else we know – when it comes to the number of our days, there is no negotiating, bartering, or borrowing. There are some things in life we just can’t borrow. We can borrow someone’s lawnmower, but we can’t borrow his spouse. We can borrow someone’s car, but we can’t borrow the degrees he’s earned. And we can’t borrow someone else’s days. Our days have been numbered by God; our days have been determined by God. Our departure flight will not be delayed. Our one and only life on this earth had a beginning and it will have an ending.
But the good news is that this life is not all there is. The grave does not mark the end of our existence. The Bible says that our soul is immortal. We are going to live somewhere forever. Compared to eternity, your life is a blip on the screen of time. But the Bible also teaches that the choices and decisions I make in this life have a defining impact on my future in eternity. There is an unbreakable link between this life and our eternity. What I do in this life ripples in eternity. And that’s why it is so important that we talk about the things we’re going to address in this series.
And here’s another reason we’re doing this series. It has been well said that following Jesus is the only way to die, and it’s the best way to live. Jesus challenges us to live well in this life because of the eternal ramifications, but Jesus also makes us this offer – “Follow me, and I will give you an abundant life.” In John 10:10 (KJV) Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” The word “abundantly” has in it the idea of “overflowing.” The New Living Translation puts it like this: “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.”
And just maybe the best way to experience life in all its fullness is to live like we were dying. Maybe the best way to squeeze all the joy and wonder and excitement and meaning out of life is to live fully aware of the fact that we don’t know how much longer we have to live. So what would it look like for you to live like that, to live what Jesus called the ‘abundant life,’ to live life in all its fullness? My hunch is that many of our lives have never been fuller, but never less fulfilled. Our lives feel cluttered and confused. We feel overloaded and overwhelmed. We’re running at top speed, but we can’t outrun the emptiness we feel. We secretly wonder if this is all there is or if this is how life was meant to be lived. So how do we experience the life Jesus promised, a life of peace and possibility and purpose?
The Apostle Paul gives us some ideas in his letter to the church at Rome; here’s what he says: “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up; our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes; and put on the shining armor of right living.” Romans 13:11-12 (NLT)
Live With A Sense Of Urgency
Here’s Paul’s first tip for living life to its fullest – live with a sense of urgency. “This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out.” We all know that we only have a limited time here; that’s no secret. But we don’t like to think about that much, do we? There was an interesting survey done among college students recently. They were asked this question: “If you could know the exact date of your death, would you want to know?” How would you answer that? Here’s how this group of college kids answered it – 87% said “No, I wouldn’t want to know when I’m going to die.” I think most of us would answer the question that way. And I don’t think the reason is that we like to be surprised. I think part of the reason we don’t want to know is because then we can go on pretending that it’s never going to happen to us.
But if part of the secret to living an abundant life is to live like we were dying, then we have to own up to this truth – we are going to die. And since we are going to die, and since we don’t know when we’re going to die, and since it could happen a lot sooner than we think or want, how can we make the most of the time we have right now?
It’s been said that one of the most dangerous words in the English language is the word “someday.” I suspect that a few of us suffer from the “someday syndrome.” Someday I’ll make things right with my family. Someday I’ll take that trip. Someday I’ll have more time for the kids. Someday I’ll talk to my friend about Jesus. Someday I’ll go back to school. In fact, why don’t you fill in the blank? Someday, I’ll _______________. If you can’t think of something to put in the blank, ask your spouse or a good friend. Just ask them, “What have I been saying that someday I would do, but have never gotten around to?” Maybe for years you have been living with the illusion of “someday.” You sincerely plan to get around to it. The problem with “someday” is that it can rob us of “this day.”
We are prone to procrastinate, aren’t we? I recently heard about a website called procrastination. I am told that when you type in the web address and when the site comes up, all that is there is a flashing sign that says, “Coming soon.”
John Ortberg tells of a story he read in the Los Angeles Time newspaper. A guy returns to the house where he grew up after being away for 20 years. He goes up into the attic and finds an old jacket he had left behind. It had been there for 20 years. He puts it on and puts his hand in the pocket and he pulls out a receipt for a pair of shoes that he had taken in to be repaired 20 years ago and had forgotten to pick up. So on a whim, he goes to where the shoe repair shop used to be in his old neighborhood, and it’s still there. The same guy is still working behind the counter that worked there 20 years ago. So this man reaches into his jacket, pulls out the receipt, and hands it to the man behind the counter. The man goes back to the work area and returns to the counter and says to the guy in the jacket, “They’ll be ready Friday.”
Now, let me take a moment to clarify something. Living with urgency doesn’t mean living faster or busier. Frantic does not equal urgent. To live with a sense of urgency means to live with an awareness that you aren’t promised “someday.” It means being aware of the fact that the clock is ticking. Life is fragile, uncertain, and in so many ways it is out of our control. No matter how careful we are, no matter how good our car’s safety equipment is, no matter how much we “play it safe,” there are no guarantees.
The Psalmist declares in Psalm 118:24 (NLT), “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” So, the first challenge of this series is to “embrace today.” It is to seize the gift of this day. It is to “live in this moment.” It means not looking past today. It means making “someday” today. Live, the Bible tells us, with a sense of urgency.
Live With A Sense Of Eternity
Second, Paul tells us to live with a sense of eternity. In Romans Paul says, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here.” (Romans 13:11-12) As much as it is a mistake to take today for granted, it is an even bigger mistake to take eternity for granted. While we need to learn to embrace today, we can never think that “today” is all there is.
One of the lessons I’m learning from the financial crisis our country has been going through is how easy it is for me to become obsessed with what’s happening today – with how much my home is worth today and how much money I have today – and to completely forget about the value of my eternal investments. One of my old coaches would often tell us to “keep your eyes on the prize.” For we who follow Jesus, the prize is not our next car or our next home; the prize is our next life. The prize is eternity. But when the market is sinking and my stocks are tanking and our budget is a mess, it is very easy to take my eyes off the prize.
Paul tells us to “wake up,” for the coming of our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. So what does he mean when he says “our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed”? The Bible talks about our salvation in the past, present, and future tense. There was a moment in the past when I personally received Christ as my Savior. At that moment the Bible says that I was “born again,” that I was saved from sin’s penalty. But the Bible also says that I am “being” saved, which is present tense, that I am being saved from the power of sin in my life. Salvation isn’t just an historical event, it is living and dynamic and active in my life today. Finally the Bible talks about my salvation in the future, when I will be saved from the presence of sin. It is the idea that my salvation will one day be complete when I am in the presence of Jesus, when I become a resident of heaven and am given my resurrected body.
So Paul is saying that the completion of our salvation is nearer today than it was yesterday. And implicit in Paul’s words is a warning – it’s later than you think. It’s like that warning in your side mirror, the one that says, “Objects in mirror are closer than you think.” It is time to wake up, Paul says, because eternity is closer than we think, and the time to prepare is right now.
Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War 2. In making preparations for his funeral, he asked to be laid in state in the heart of London at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He requested that his casket be placed under the massive dome in the center of that magnificent Cathedral. And then he made this request. Churchill requested one trumpeter be stationed on one side of the balcony that circles the dome and another trumpeter be stationed on the opposite side. Churchill then asked that at the close of his funeral service the trumpeter on one side would play taps. And then, when the first trumpeter was finished, Churchill asked that the trumpeter on the other side was to play reveille … the wake up call. Churchill understood that when we leave this life we enter into eternity. And he also understood this – now is the time to prepare.